


you're sharp, alright

by ohmygodwhy



Series: first rule of earth kingdom fight club... [5]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Developing Friendships, Episode: s02e08 The Chase, Gen, Mid-Canon, we're back on my au of an au shit.....
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-25 05:47:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19739527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmygodwhy/pseuds/ohmygodwhy
Summary: She freezes in place — and not because she’s winded, okay, but because she’s surprised. He left, a few weeks before Aang and Sokka and Katara showed up, said he had to go for whatever reason and she wasn’t sure if she’d ever run into him again. For a moment, she isn’t sure, but.She knows that voice. And she would know that fiery ass heartbeat anywhere.“Sparky?” she asks, ignoring the way she knows everyone’s heads have swiveled her way.





	you're sharp, alright

**Author's Note:**

> a continuation of my au of my own au.........i fear nothing anymore.
> 
> this is suuper unedited bc i have work tomorrow morning and it's....late, but someone pointed out that toph & zuko would actually see each other again Before the air temple 6 months later and the idea wouldn't leave me alone. have whatever this is

So one minute she’s having fun, doing her thing, kicking earthbending tournament ass, and the next minute she’s off adventuring with the Avatar and running from some crazy bitches with lizards who won’t let them sleep. 

Somewhere in the middle of that, she runs off and has tea with some old stranger dude who’s way wiser than any of the other old dudes she’s met, and then they’re cornering the head crazy bitch and she gets away and for some reason the old man she met is there and then he gets hit with — lightening? Someone yells, and she swears to the spirits she recognizes it, and that’s when the HB gets away, and then the old man is on the ground and someone else is stumbling down next to him. 

“Uncle?” the person says.

She freezes in place — and not because she’s winded, okay, but because she’s surprised. He left, a few weeks before Aang and Sokka and Katara showed up, said he had to go for whatever reason and she wasn’t sure if she’d ever run into him again. For a moment, she isn’t sure, but. 

She knows that voice. And she would know that fiery ass heartbeat anywhere.

“Sparky?” she asks, ignoring the way she knows everyone’s heads have swiveled her way. 

“Toph,” He says, sounding obviously shocked, and breathless. Not the kind of breathless he did after one of their spars — his heartbeat is crazier than she’s ever felt it, pulse racing in fear. His uncle. His _uncle_? This day just keeps getting more and more wild. “I don’t...” 

“What the—“ she hears Sokka start, and then break off, “You fu—you know Zuko?”

Hadn’t he dropped that name like yesterday? The guy who was after them before this crazy girl was? Shit, small fucking world, huh. 

“Who, Sparky?”

“Sparky,” Sokka repeats, sounding like he’s about to explode. “How in the fuc—“

“That’s not important,” Toph cuts him off, “His uncle’s hurt.”

“I don’t need your help,” Sparky — Zuko says. It takes a second to realize he’s not talking to her — Katara is kneeling hesitantly at the old man’s side. 

“Yes, you do,” Toph tells him anyway. He feels his body turn in her direction, even as his hands stay curled around his uncle’s arm. His movements are sloppy, his voice is thin. She’s put him in the ground more times than they can both count. They might maybe be friends. He respects her, more than he probably respects any of the rest of these fools, and she’s the only one without any grudge. “You can barely take care of yourself, let alone something like this. Katara can help.”

Zuko’s breath comes out in a few sharp bursts, like he was gonna say something but cut himself off every time. Toph feels the tension in everyone’s body. “I don’t — I can’t —“

“She won’t hurt him,” Aang says; Toph feels Zuko’s head shoot up. Aang tenses further, but doesn’t step back. “I give you my word.”

That sounds pretty heavy, to Toph. She knows how important it is to Fire Nation culture, giving your word, had plenty of boring ass books read to her. There is a long moment where Toph, for the life of her, isn’t sure what’s going to happen. If Zuko’s gonna lash out, if Sokka will, if they’ll hesitate a moment too long and the old man will die and then they’ll all be fucked. She isn’t sure what she’s gonna have to do. It scares her for a moment, that she might not know for sure which side she would genuinely pick. 

Zuko releases a deep, shuddering breath. “Okay,” he says, grip tightening on his uncle’s wrist, “Okay, just. Please. Please, be careful. He’s all I... he’s all there is.”

“Of course,” Katara says, and Toph hears the flow of the water from her pouch. 

Zuko refuses to move back, even as he lets go of his uncle’s arm to let Katara work, but no one else moves closer, so Toph does. She can feel the tension in Sokka’s body, the way he makes to move forwards, but Toph doesn’t let it stop her. She knows Sparky — knew he was a fire bender and still liked him anyways, back before she knew his real name. 

Zuko’s tense, too; she can feel his spine sticking straight up, can feel his hands shake where they’re clenched into fists. She doesn’t know how to help. Doesn’t know if he’ll accept it, even if she did know. She knows how to push and prod and how to punch her feelings away. They have that in common, and so she crouches down next to him and doesn’t let his silence intimidate her.

“So,” she says, “Prince of the fucking Fire Nation, huh?”

She hears Zuko swallow hard, hears Aang and Sokka’s wary silence, hears Katara’s focus, hears Zuko’s uncle’s labored breathing.

“Not really,” Zuko says after a moment or two, “Me and Uncle are kind of traitors right now. I guess.” 

There’s a story there, but she knows this isn’t the time or place, and for once feels the need to respect that. “Huh. That why you were spending your time letting me beat your ass instead of prince-ing around the Fire Nation? Or hunting the Avatar, or whatever.” 

“Prince-ing?” Zuko asks, his voice that familiar kind of exasperated. She feels some of the tension leave his shoulders, leave the other’s stances, just a bit.

“Yeah, you know. Being all prince-y and shit. You’re a lotta things, but you aren’t prince-y.”

“What, you met any other prince?” He sounds like he doesn’t know whether he should be offended or not, and it makes her snort.

“I’ve spent a lifetime with my noble parents, and all their noble servants. I know pretentious rich people when I feel them.” 

“You’re fuckin’ nobility?” He sounds much less afraid than he did five minutes ago, and she lets herself smirk instead of force the title off of her like she’s been trying to do the past however many years of her life. 

“Unfortunately.”

“Where in the fuck did you learn to fight like that?”

“Badgermoles.”

He doesn’t seem to know what to say to that. He’s quiet for a long moment, body leaning almost imperceptibly towards his uncle. She imagines his eyes are trained down; his shoulders draw back up, so she clamps a hand down on one of them. He’s skinnier than she remembers, his shoulder blade digging into her wrist: 

“He’s gonna be fine.”

Zuko doesn’t answer, and she doesn’t ask him to.

Nobody seems to know what to say, for the next few minutes. She can tell the others probably have a lot they want to ask, but even Sokka must realize it isn’t the time for it. 

“You use a lot of bad language,” Aang says out of fucking nowhere. Any other time, Toph would laugh out loud.

“Yeah, and?” Zuko answers after a moment. 

“I just,” Aang starts, and then stops, “I didn’t really notice, before.”

“I did,” Sokka sneers. 

“Good for you,” Zuko sneers right back.

“Who the fuck cares?” Toph says.

“All of you, shut up,” Katara says, “I’m trying to focus.”

That shuts Zuko right up, even though he wasn’t saying much to begin with. His body tilts even closer, like he wants to reach out and touch but knows he shouldn’t. 

Toph slides her hand down his shoulder, down his arm, and carefully wraps her fingers around his shaking wrist. She doesn’t know much about comfort, but she does know how to ground. She’s an earth bender. She’s told him to keep his feet on the ground more times than she can count, even if he only fucking listened sometimes. 

His hand stops shaking, for a moment. 

“Spirits, this is super weird,” she hears Sokka whisper, to Aang or maybe to himself. If Zuko hears, he doesn’t show it. 

Toph just squeezes tighter. 

They let Katara work in silence for a while; Toph listens to the weak beating of the old man’s heart and she’s never had much use for spirits, but she hopes to every one of them she can remember that he’ll be okay. Because he gave her tea and advice and she told him that he needed to tell his nephew that he needed him, too — tell Zuko, it turns out — and she doesn’t know if he has, yet. Because Zuko is grouchy and kind of rude and stubborn as all fuck, and he’s her friend. And apparently the person who chased her newest friends around the world, or whatever vague shit Sokka had said. Shit. Nothing was ever this complicated back home, even after Zuko showed up. 

Slowly, steadily, the old man’s heartbeat gets stronger, his breathing evens out. Zuko, paying such close attention, seems to notice this, too. The tension drips off of his shoulders, little by little, but it never leaves. 

Eventually, Katara takes a deep breath and says “Okay. That’s all I can do for now.”

Zuko swallows heavy, “Is he—? Will he be okay?” 

“I think so,” Katara answers; she sounds tired, but sure. 

Zuko sighs, heavy and full fucking body. Toph feels exhausted just hearing him; feels exhausted just as she is — she hasn’t slept in like, two days, and all this new info is a lot to process, right? Spirits.

Zuko finally reaches out to touch, like he seems sure his uncle won’t break it he does, wraps his shaky hand around his uncle’s arm again. 

“I... I’m in your...” he starts, “I just. Thank you. Really.”

Katara lets out a sharp breath, speechless for a moment; Toph is impressed — from what Toph has seen so far, Katara doesn’t seem the kind to be speechless very often. 

“You’re welcome,” she says, recovering. “Really.” 

There’s a silence; Toph wonders if they’re looking at each other, and then decides she feels kind of left out, what with the whole blindness thing. She shoves Zuko with the hand still around his wrist.

“Told you he would be okay.”

Zuko, ever so slightly, leans into her shoulder where she’s pressed, closer than she realized. She thinks he’s really feeling it, if he’s being this vulnerable in front of what she assumes are — like, officially — his enemies, right? Not obviously vulnerable, because he would probably die before he showed actual weakness, but enough that she can notice. She didn’t realize she could even notice until now. She doesn’t know how she feels about it. But she doesn’t push him away. 

“Yeah,” he says. “Yeah. I guess you did.”

“You guess,” she purposely scoffs, “I said he would, and I was right, as usual.” 

He takes another deep breath, like he still can’t believe it. “You’re not right all the time,” he manages, spiteful shit he is.

“Uh, yeah I am. I was right about you holding out on me, I was right about you being a bender, and I was right about your uncle being okay. That’s three outta three.”

“Took you a few tries to figure the second one out,” he defends weakly as shit.

“No it didn’t — I was ruling elements out as I went.” 

Before Zuko can shoot anything back at their losing argument, Sokka cuts in. 

“Okay, okay, this is really freaking me out. How in the world do you _know_ each other? And why are you talking, like, normally? I didn’t know Zuko could speak like a normal person to begin with.”

“Huh?” Zuko asks, all offended. “What does that even _mean_?”

“It means, all you ever said was ‘ _I must capture the Avatar, I’m evil and I hate you all and I cuss a lot’_ and on and on.”

“I do _not_ fucking sound like that,” Zuko practically yells at this point. Toph is almost relieved that he’s being as fiery as she remembers him.

“Uh, yeah you do. And don’t curse at me!”

“Fuck off, I’ll say whatever I want to you!”

“There you go again with the ‘I hate you all’ shit.”

“Spirits, shut up!” Katara butts in.

“No, no, let them speak,” Toph says, thoroughly entertained. 

“I think we should all calm down,” Aang says, the annoying voice of reason. 

“I _am_ calm,” Zuko growls, sounding remarkably like Katara did a few hours ago when she was yelling at Toph. 

Sokka huffs loudly, and Toph can feel Zuko about to snap — she tightens her grip around his wrist and holds him in place before he can jump up and make the situation any more tense than it already is, despite the weird air about all of it. 

“C’mon Sparky,” she mock-whispers, leaning in, “Don’t listen to Sokka. He’s kinda a dumbass.”

“Spirits, Toph, you have got to — “

Sokka is cut off by a weak cough; everyone’s attention immediately shoots to the man on the ground. Zuko leans forwards, bracing himself over him.

“Uncle?” he says, voice quiet and almost achingly desperate, achingly young. It makes Toph uncomfortable, hearing Zuko sounding like that. 

His uncle doesn’t answer, but his breathing stays steady and strong. None of them seem to know what to say, again. Toph wonders if everyone is as uncomfortable as she is, right now. They used to be enemies, right? Or maybe still are? It must be weird, seeing the guy you thought was all bad, being all human like this. She had thought the Avatar was some legend she had nothing to do with and never would, and then Aang’s ridiculous, human ass dropped in and changed that. Complicated shit, nothing like back home. She thinks she prefers it, in some weird way. 

“So,” Aang finally says, “Are we, you know, friends now?” 

“What?” Sokka and Zuko say at almost exactly the same time.

Zuko’s uncle coughs again. Everyone goes quiet. It’s like a fucking circle, Toph thinks.

Complicated shit.

**Author's Note:**

> man comment to get me thru the rest of the year bc........im starting college in like a month im stressed!


End file.
